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Why Google Implements Policy Violations

Why Google Implements Policy Violations

Google Ad Manager (GAM) is the most used ad server in the world, and for good reason. With technologies like AdSense and the premium Google Ad Exchange, there is no reason for publishers not to use Google to serve their ads. Because Google is dedicated to quality, they have set in place some basic policies for publishers to follow. 

Violating Google’s ad policies can have dire consequences for publishers. With enough violations, Google can even suspend a publisher’s Ad Manager account.

Common Policy Violations

Below are some of the most common policy violations and how to avoid them:

Malvertising: Malvertising is the incorporation of malware into advertisements. If clicking an ad redirects a user to a site with malware, that ad is in violation of Google’s policies.

Ads That Redirect to Illegal Content: If an ad redirects a user to a site hosting illegal content, that ad can get the publisher hit with a policy violation.

Ads That Redirect to Varying IP Addresses: Clicking an ad should not redirect a user to a site that utilizes DNS or IP Mapping.

Automated Clicks or Impressions: Any artificial clicks or impressions are strictly prohibited by Google. This violation occurs when an automated script imitates a legitimate user, gaining clicks for an ad that normally wouldn’t be clicked at high volumes. This can also happen when an ad creative is misplaced on a page, as users with no actual intention to click can accidentally click on the ad.

Ads That Redirect to a Page With Pop-Up Ads: When someone clicks an ad, Google wants that user to know what to expect. Therefore, it is a policy violation to redirect a user to a page with pop-up ads or auto-redirects.

Ads That Offer a User Compensation for Clicking: Using this tactic to increase click-through rate is forbidden by Google, who believe that users should click ads based on the quality of the ad and product.

How to Prevent a Policy Violation

As long as a publisher adheres to Google’s guidelines, it shouldn’t be hard to prevent violations. However, to air on the side of caution, there are a few extra steps publishers can take.

Make Sure Ads Are Correctly Placed: Ads should be placed in the correct locations on a web page. Placing an ad in an awkward position may lead to accidental clicks, which Google’s bots will consider automated clicking.

Ads should not be placed in a way that pushes the main content of the site “below the fold,” or, positioned in the lower half of the page.

Make It a Point to Monitor Your Page’s Ads: While advertisers should be responsible to not create ads that violate Google’s policies, they do sometimes make mistakes. This is why publishers should make sure to check the ads that appear on their sites. Sometimes an ad can be a policy violation to no fault of the publisher.

Fixing Policy Issues in Google Ad Manager (GAM)

Use Policy Center: First, access the Policy center within your GAM account. This is where you will find information on exactly what ads are violating policy and why. To enter the policy center, simply enter Google Ad Manager and click Admin >> Policy.

Once inside, you’ll find the “Pages With Issues” and “Sites With Issues” categories. Now you can easily determine the source of your violation. 

Check Specific Creatives: To see what specific creatives are violating policies, just sign into GAM and click Delivery >> Line Items >> All Line Items. Here you can apply a number of different filters. “Policy Violations” will highlight flagged creatives. 

From here, you can block policy-violating ads. Apply the filter “Policy Violation > Is > Detected.” Remove the problematic ads. 

Conclusion

It is vital that publishers follow Google’s policies. Not only does this make for a safer, more user-friendly Internet, but it prevents Google from suspending your ad manager account.

If you are using J. Fac to manage your ads, you can count on us to ensure that Google’s rules are met. We utilize Ad Exchange, Google’s own premium technology, which serves ads from big-brand, policy-compliant advertisers. Click here to get started.

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What Are Ad Impressions and Why Are They Important?

What Are Ad Impressions and Why Are They Important?

Once you’ve been given access to Google Ad Exchange, you’re going to want as many people as possible to view the ads on your page. This is because the majority of the revenue that you’ll earn from AdX comes from your CPM (cost per thousand impressions). The term refers to the amount of money you make per thousand people who see your ad. For example, if your CPM is $1, and 100,000 people view an ad on your page per day, your net revenue will be $100 per day. Put simply, the more people who see the ads on your page, the more money you make. This is why ad viewability is a vital aspect of online advertising. 

But what constitutes ad viewability? Google has specific criteria: a display ad is officially considered “viewed” when at least half of its creative set is seen by the user for at least one second. Video ads are considered viewed when half of them are in the user’s sight and playing for at least two seconds.

Google’s Active View: A Way to Measure Your Ad Impressions

As a publisher, it’s important to know how many ad impressions you’re getting from your page views. Thankfully, Google has developed a measurement tool called Active View. Active View is an indispensable tool for publishers: it is a Google technology that measures ad impressions in real time. It is integrated into every Google advertising product (AdX, AdSense, etc…) Using Active View will give you a clear understanding of your best performing ad units. With this knowledge, you can enhance your site’s ad experience by maximizing inventory that earns the most views. 

Active View’s measurements are based upon three metrics, eligible impressions, measurable impressions, and viewable impressions. Below is a brief summary of each.

  • Eligible impressions: any impression on your page that contains an Active View tag and is therefore eligible to be measured by the technology. 
  • Measurable impressions: the amount of impressions that were measurable by Active View out of the total number of eligible impressions. This should be close to 100%.
  • Viewable impressions: the most important metric of the three: this simply refers to the amount of impressions that were viewable out of all measurable impressions. You are going to want to optimize your page to get the most viewable impressions.

Google’s own summary of Active View metrics can be found here.

How to Get More Viewable Impressions.

Now that you’ve got a basic understanding of how Active View works, you’re probably wondering what you can do to receive higher viewable impressions. We will go through a few easy ways in which you can get more people to see your ads.

  • Ad Position: This may seem like a no-brainer, but a common error that new publishers make is not putting their ads in places that are immediately viewable to their users. For example, placing an ad “above the fold” (above the main content of the page) can significantly increase viewability, as users will always see the ad before reading the content of your page.
  • Ad Sizes: Google has created a list of the most viewed ad sizes, found here. According to Google, “Large video players have significantly higher viewability, and vertical video units have above average viewability.” Below are detailed lists of both display and video ad sizes, ranked by their viewability.

Make your Ads Responsive

This is an absolute must for publishers. Currently, half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Making your ads responsive means that they will be able to adapt to shifts in browser sizes.

For more insights and suggestions on Active View, how to optimize your site, or maximize your ad view ability, feel free to drop us a line at www.jfacassoc.com. Make sure to reference this blog post when asked how you found us.

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Tired of Low Revenue from AdSense?

Tired of Low Revenue from AdSense?

As one of the world’s most utilized ad networks, Google AdSense is often heralded as the ultimate monetization tool for small publishers. But with its high revenue fees and aggressive competition, it is not as lucrative a platform as some would like to assume. Fortunately, there is a more exclusive alternative to AdSense that can significantly increase your earnings. Read below to learn how J. Fac can help you upgrade.

AdSense: Great for Starting Out, but There Are Better Options

To new publishers, Google AdSense can be an incredible tool. Just paste a few lines into your code, and several Google-certified ad networks will soon be competing to advertise on your page. This may seem like an easy way to earn money from your website. However, once your business begins to grow, you are likely to encounter the drawbacks of AdSense.

Seasoned publishers have found that it is difficult to make substantial income from AdSense alone. The amount of revenue that a site will earn from the platform is largely dependent on traffic volume. Because of this, you would need to accumulate a fairly large following before you actually start seeing good money from AdSense. Even more discouraging is the fact that the platform only pays publishers 68% of their earned revenue, so for every $100  you make, Google will take $32.

Better Options for Publishers

Fortunately, Google offers a higher-quality alternative to AdSense: Google Ad Exchange, or, AdX. While there are numerous benefits to using AdX over AdSense, it is generally favored simply because it allows publishers to earn more revenue. With AdX, publishers are able to set a floor price for bids on their ad inventory, guaranteeing higher earnings. Other advantages of AdX include:

  • Access to AdX-exclusive big brand/premium advertisers.
  • Advanced blocking-rule filtering, including specific advertiser blocking and user-based data blocking
  • The ability to create reports based on your own criteria

Google’s own comparison of the two products can be found here: https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/4599464?hl=en

Using J. Fac to Upgrade from AdSense

It is a common misconception that Google offers AdX only to “preferred publishers”, those with millions of monthly page views. The truth is that there is another way to gain access to the platform, and that is by joining through one of Google’s channel partners. This is where J. Fac comes in. As channel partners with Google, we are able to offer publishers of all sizes access to Google Ad Exchange.

Best of all, you do not need to pay for our services. Because we make money by taking a small share of ad revenue, we are dedicated to your success. We can provide tools such as content creation and SEO strategy to ensure that your site increases its traffic volume. We thrive when you do.

If you would like to take the first step towards earning more from your website, click here to get started.

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